2001 – Forest W. Stearns

Forest W. Stearns
(1918-1999)

Inducted September 21, 2001

Forest Stearns was an internationally known forest ecologist whose career in forestry spanned over 50 years.

His career began as a Professor of Biology at Purdue University, where he taught from 1947 to 1957. He joined the USFS in 1957 and served at the Northern Forest Experiment Station at Rhinelander, WI from 1961-1967 where he studied the hardwood forest of Northern Wisconsin.
Dr. Stearns joined the faculty at UW Milwaukee in 1968 and remained there until his retirement in 1987. While there he authored and co-authored numerous scientific papers, many on the composition and changed of Wisconsin’s Northern Hardwood Forests.

As Professor Emeritus, Dr. Stearns was highly respected by his students who, upon his retirement, endowed an award in his name at the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters.

Following his retirement, Dr. Stearns continued research at the USFS Research Station at Rhinelander as a volunteer working on wetlands ecology and forest diversity. He was a long time member and past Director of the Forest History Association of Wisconsin.